Nzabamwita said the incident occurred on 08 August 2015 at around 05:45 hours at Rwanda Battalion Headquarters (RWABATT 2) located at 5th Arrondissement SOCATEL M’POKO. “There were five dead and eight injured”, said a source close to the MINUSCA mission.
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“We suspect terrorism without ruling out mental illness to be the cause”.
In an earlier statement provided on Twitter, the ministry said the gunman had killed himself – but this was later changed to say that he had been shot dead by other soldiers during the massacre. The United Nations said it is opening an investigation into the incident that it called “the first of this magnitude since the establishment of the mission in April 2014”.
“Investigations have instantly commenced to determine the motive behind this deplorable capturing”, spokesman Brigadier Common Joseph Nzabamwita stated.
It added that the 8 other soldiers injured in the shooting were being treated in hospital and were not in critical condition.
Rwandan military officials were unavailable for comment.
Central African Republic descended into chaos in March 2013 when predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels seized energy, triggering reprisals by “anti-balaka” Christian militias who drove tens of hundreds of Muslims from the south in a de facto partition.
MINUSCA comprises some 10,800 troops from Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Rwanda, Morocco, Senegal, Pakistan and Indonesia.
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The Central African Republic is set to hold elections in October, but the polls have already been pushed back 3 times as the country grapples with its worst crisis since independence in 1960.
